Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Many South Africans died in the struggle against the Apartheid regime. Today, segregation is history. Blacks can now live in the white suburbs of Johannesburg – if they have the money. But in Soweto – the biggest black township in South African – only a few whites dare to enter – and most of them are foreigners. Since the first democratic elections in 1994, tourism is growing steadily. And, for better or worse, the tourists want to savour Soweto. One facilitator of such trips is Thulisile Khumalo – who studied in Germany and now takes tourists through her former home. The children are delighted. They hardly ever see whites. White South Africans hardly ever dare make the trip into the townships. The children are thrilled to show off what they’ve learnt to the visitors. Thulisile Khumalo wants her township to benefit from the tourist boom.
Thulisile Khumalo, Atamela Travel (In German: When you’re in Soweto and meet people that I’ve grown up with, you can see how open people are in Soweto, how much they like visitors. For every person here in Soweto, it’s important to see a tourist because they know that they’ll buy something. So, when you spend 10 Rand here you know it can feed a family.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: The South Western Township – Soweto for short - is 25 kilometres from Johannesburg, where most residents work – if they have jobs. Officially, the unemployment rate in South Africa is 42 per cent. In Soweto, it’s much higher. Here, poverty, unemployment and crime rule. Adults drown their boredom and hopelessness in alcohol. Youngsters, at least, still have their games. And resentment and activism have always had a strong grip on the people here.
Thulisile Khumalo, Atamela Travel: It began 1976 with a demonstration by school kids. The government had introduced a law in 1976 saying all the main subjects at school here in South Africa should be taught in Afrikaans. The students said they didn’t want this and protested. A soldier lost his nerve and started shooting the children. A 13 year old was killed.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Hector Pietersen was that child, one of the first children to be shot. His name has now become a potent symbol of black resistance to the Boer government. In the days following June 16 1976, more than 500 young South Africans died alongside Peitersen. Thousands more were injured. But that was only the beginning of the South Africa wide rebellion against white rule. The Hector Pietersen Museum in Soweto is a reminder of that resistance – a reminder to everyone that no people can permanently be oppressed. One person who lived in close contact with the unrest, is journalist Martin Mamlaba. During the rebellion few white reporters were allowed into Soweto. Political activists used to meet here, in the Regina Mundi church.
Martin Mamlaba, Former journalist: There was a sort of state of emergency at that time. But people are not allowed to be in the streets at night. The army would beat them up, the police would beat them up. They didn’t want gatherings of more than five people. And, the church here was a refuge for most people and that’s where meetings were being held. So, politicians, now some of them are in parliament, addressed people in this very church behind me. So, at that time the police would come and surround this place and wait for people to come out. When they saw people not coming out they’d throw tear gas right into the church and then march in and jambok everybody including the priests. That was like how it was at that time.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Now on a pension, Martin was not only a journalist, but also close to the African National Congress. Children today dance around the altar after their first communion but before this is where defenders of the Apartheid regime used to shoot at opponents. Separate entrances for whites and blacks still remain but only in the Apartheid museum in Johannesburg. The hated pass which classified people by race and skin colour has also disappeared – like the gallows. It’s been over 15 years since images like these went around the world. The decades long oppression of the whites had pushed youths in the townships to the limit. They wanted their rights and they wanted them now. And, not to be second-class citizens. Youths in the ghettos played cat and mouse with the police. They were militant, angry and impatient. Many lost their lives. Most young blacks couldn’t ever hope to have a regular education. Nelson Mandela was the hope of the country. After he was freed from Robben Island prison and was voted President four years later, there was freedom in South Africa. Mandela wanted reconciliation between blacks and whites. Before the first democratic elections in 1994, many whites left the country. Those that stayed had to rethink. The black population would no longer let themselves be pushed around.
Nelson Mandela, Former President of South Africa: Take your weapons, take your knives and throw them into the sea.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Nelson Mandela prevented a civil war but couldn’t stop whites from needing to take up fortified positions – fearfully hiding behind high walls and barriers, razor wire, electric fences and defended by fierce dogs. To protect themselves from gangsters, some people have installed self-shooting mechanisms. After many incidents of blacks climbing over his garden walls Jock Burden installed this device. Tripwires trigger the device – like in this constructed scene.
Jock Burden, Engineer: As everyone is saying, law and order has broken down. The courts are overloaded, the police have no power anymore and I also think there are so many illegal immigrants in the country roaming around all over the place and no one seems to be bothering too much about it. So, these people have no jobs and I think if I was in the same position I would have to steal, I think. But unfortunately, people are being killed because of this. The need for them is to find work.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: This police video shows how young gangsters operate. This was filmed by a hidden amateur video camera. Since 1994, more than 12 million South Africans have been victims of crime, such as violent car hijackings. Sometimes, the car owners have been brutally killed. This girl was lucky. Only her car and purse were stolen. We’re in Alexandra – one of the worst black areas in Johannesburg. Carabo and Freddy show us how they earned their money. Almost everyday, using armed violence, they stole a car. One man is trying with unusual methods to fight against this brutal criminality and get youths out of gangsterism. He uses violence.
Carabo, Former gangster: The bishop came and he beat me. He talked to me. If I stayed a gangster then I had no future. I would land in prison and die young.
Freddy, Former gangster: The other gangsters were my family. My parents didn’t care about me. I didn’t go to school anymore.
Ananias Maredi, Apostolic Bishop: Well, these two young guys – I hit him to make him see right because he was doing this car hijacking. And, this one was housebreaking and this one I just talked to him and then again I hit him. At the moment I am succeeding because they are doing something for the community.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: The Maredi Centre is run from this small house. Bishop Maredi and around 20 criminal pupils live here. Every day they cook for around 2000 children. The community gives donations but they are far from rich. Nutritious meals are cooked – maize and beans or the main staple of the blacks – Pap – a maize mixture with sauce. According to the bishop, there are about 30,000 children in the black township of Alexandra who don’t get enough to eat. Many of them have to look after themselves. Ananias Maredi was ordained as a bishop by the Apostolic church in South Africa. He could no longer bear to see children searching through rubbish dumps looking for something to eat. Half a million people live in the cramped quarters of Alexandra. Every day Bishop Maredi, his gangsters and volunteers distribute the food. For many children it’s the only meal of the day. Every Sunday there’s a procession. The priest walks with the former criminals through the streets to show them to the community. He doesn’t believe in the usual Sunday preaching. That’s only for old people. He’s interested in caring for the young. Here, one of them has died. The gangsters are a thorn in the side of Bishop Maredi and his converted youths.
Ananias Maredi, Apostolic Bishop: It’s forcing me to take the law into my hands and I have to see what I can do to protect myself and how I can protect the community. Because now what I’m going to do, if they continue is to beat them to death, because our police do nothing.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Twenty ex-gangsters have found a home through the Bishop. But a lot of them want fast money. And, they also have to contend with the police. They’ve got a tip. This was a chop shop –a place where stolen cars are taken apart. Usually the police lose the criminals in the narrow lanes. The remains of two cars are on the scrap heap. The gangsters ran out of time. But everything else has been sold. But, right under our noses, when we were filming, there was another robbery.
Masilo Sekoba, Police: Two of them come around to the driver. They point a firearm at him and one of them sticks a screwdriver in his stomach. They said ‘kill him. Kill him.’
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Even the murals show the violence in South Africa. Security firms are making good business from the fear of criminality. Since the regime change they’ve been making money out of satellite surveillance for cars. A helicopter from the Netstar company is in the air daily following signals from stolen cars. Usually, they’re located within 45 minutes. A small box, the size of a cigarette packet is built into the car that allows it to be tracked by satellite. The signal from the stolen car is received and then followed. Over 90 percent of cars are found again – like this van. The thieves were tracked down. After a night in jail, most of them are let out on bail. Many of them never turn up for their court date. Police tell of repeated arrests of the same offenders. The justice system in the new South Africa is not working efficiently. In Alexandra alone these weapons have been collected from offenders. None of them is registered. Despite the high rate of criminality, murders and brutality, all is not lost. There are always a few who are practically helping youngsters to overcome the disadvantages they face in life.
Condry Ziqubu, Singer: The only thing that really is to be done is for the government to really try to do some policing. Policing around. But the major thing is to give people some employment. If people are employed there will be less crime.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Everyday in the afternoons, youngsters come to Condry’s to make music with him or learn an instrument. There’s no force – that wouldn’t help anyone. They have something to do and it keeps them on the rails.
Condry Ziqubu, Singer: I think it’s about time to plough back because it’s been the people, the community that’s been supporting me all these years in the music business. So, I think it’s imperative that I plough back and teach the kids the business of music – how to play piano, how to sing, so they can become the stars of tomorrow.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: In the Alexandra Centre youngsters can also go to an art course. Volunteers help out so the children can learn something. Schooling is free in South Africa, but parents have to buy the school uniform. Many parents can’t manage that. Children often have to work or simply stop going to school and leave the straight and narrow. Do you like coming here?
Child: Yes.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Why?
Child: We don’t have many things to do. Just to come here we know we have to do something. I have bad friends that go and steal and go break into your house.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Before, there used to be no money for playgrounds in the black townships. The white government didn’t care how people lived here. The result is a high rate of youth criminality. That’s why it’s now so important to have facilities so children can at least learn something. The apartheid regime is responsible for the misery. People were treated like cattle and forced to live in the black townships. The young people which fought against the government are now unemployed. They were not needed after the regime change because they didn’t have any education. The government has built 1.5 million small homes with electricity and running water. But for over 30 million needy blacks in South Africa, this is just a drop in the ocean. An estimated half of them live below the poverty line and many of them can’t manage to get a new house. Drugs help to forget daily life. Marihuana, crack, Mandrax pills – all help to keep hopelessness at bay. To get money for drugs they get guns and find it good to be a gang member. In one of the townships, Louis Swigelaar tries to create peace between the gangs.
Louis Swigelaar, Go-between gangsters: One of the schoolboys was killed and then that same evening the schoolboys came and petrol bombed this house. From that day onwards, on a daily basis they, the kids, fight. But they use a nine year-old to take drugs from one point to another because the police will never search a nine year-old or a 13 year-old. Then we look at the 13-16 year-olds doing the attacks. Even if they go to court they are minors and they’ll be released into the custody of their parents. That’s what the gangs know.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: There are 32 gangs with around 18’000 members is a constant state of war. The judge at the court in Mitchells Plain knows most of them. One of the biggest problems in South Africa is the disintergration of the justice system. People have lost trust in the system. That’s why many of them take the law into their own hands. Lack of punishment has meant there’s no halt to the violence. Many gang children are in detention centres. Some of them never reach adulthood. They die young. The first step after being arrested is for the offenders appear in court. But sometimes it takes months to get a court date. And so, the liberal justice system lets most offenders out on bail. So, they can easily disappear before the court date, until they are caught later on for another crime. It’s playing roulette with the system.
Walter Golding, Judge: Gang violence is a real factor in our court at Mitchells Plain. With that comes abuse of drugs which is primarily marijuana, glue, and smoking, Mandrax. But they start off with a younger age with glue sniffing. But that no longer gives the desired effect it seems they switch to harder drugs.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: An entire generation is living on the streets in Cape Town. A year ago, this small child was born on the streets. The father has never known a home. A couple of planks, a roof of a shop – that’s home for this young family. The police often tear the shelters down but the next day, they’re built again.
20-year-old previous offender: To get a job here in town is hard because when the boss knows you come out of jail, you’re a jail gangster, he thinks you might steal his stuff and they tell you to your face. What can you do? You have to walk away. What can you do? That’s why they say there will always be crime. Some of them run away from home because of nothing. They just want to be able to do what they want on the streets. They don’t want to listen to their mother or father.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Early morning in Cape Town. Thousands of children like these huddle together at night to sleep. They want to be on the streets because their parents are alcoholics or in prison – or because it’s simply better on the streets than at home. These two have also found a place to spend the night – right on a main road. We want to know why they live on the streets. She says their mother drinks too much. The boy says an older lad used to try to get Gail. Then they chased me away. I miss good people, she says at the end. In Cape Town – like in all the big cities in South Africa – emergency night shelters for children have been opened. Here, in the Heim Homestead, they say they won’t take Gail anymore. Three times she was given a chance times to stay and to learn something. But she sneaked out. Like most children here, she’d never been to school and knew only life on the streets with drugs and alcohol. Her future looks much the same. Totally stoned and full of drugs she finds with other like her, a kind of family. You must put the paint thinner on a towel and inhale. Then everything’s OK, says this girl. She says it makes her head weightless. If I have to go to the court again, then I immediately sell my paint thinner and stuff to sniff and then I go to a liquor store and buy my wine – then I can sleep well, she says. How old are you?
Girl: Eighteen. Why do you ask?
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: She wants to tell her story. Because I was sniffing substances, the court took my two children away. The path from the streets to prison is narrow. Whenever possible they steal. The money is just for stuff to inhale. That’s how they forget their hunger and misery. This boy stole things from a shop. The judge has generally known the youths since they were knee high. If they are majors and offend they’re not handed over to their parents. Most of them end up in prison. If the children are lucky they come to a youth detention centre like here in Bonnytoun near Cape Town. There are thousand children in prison in South Africa. Most of them have had appalling experiences on the inside. In Bonnytoun youths are together. During the apartheid-regime they were thrown together in cells with adults – rape was commonplace. What shocked us are the accounts they gave of armed violence. At every table there’s an average of two murderers and a sex offender. And, they’re still just children. In South Africa today, children are still put behind bars with adults. Gangs are tightly organised. They share the newcomers amongst themselves. They must, even if they don’t want to, do what they desire. This teenager explains what it’s like.
15 year-old offender: He wants to sleep with them. If you don’t want to sleep with them they beat you. If they say something to you and you say no, later they want to sleep with you for that thing you didn’t do. And you must …you be in big trouble and they will beat you.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: 160 youths are here in Bonnytoun. Fourteen to 17 year olds are locked up, but at least they’re not with adults. None of them want to be recognised. One of our four interviewees began his criminal career with two murders when he was 13 years old. At 15 he was a gang leader. Then there were two rapes. Another began his gangster career with an armed robbery – when he was just 13. Another committed rape when he was 15 and was put behind bars. The fourth was in for theft. Today he’s 15 years old. All carry their gang numbers tattooed on their body. They’re all waiting for their court hearing. Thanks to Nicro – a help organisation for offenders, many youths are transferred to this safe house from prison.
Deon Ruiters, Nicro – Institute for Crime Prevention: Most of the cases, about 75 percent of the cases we see in our criminal court, are commercial cases like theft, shoplifting, housebreaking these cases. It’s very seldom you see a child under 15 committing serious crimes like murder and rape. And I’m not saying it doesn’t happen. It does happen. But it’s about 10-13 percent of the cases that come into our criminal justice system.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: The list of offences of these youths is long: possession of weapons, rape, murder, armed robbery, theft and car hijacking. They’re behind bars and have little to do except watch television. Some of them try to escape. There’s only a slim chance that any child here will break out of the vicious of violence, forced sex and crime. About an hour and a half from Cape Town there’s a special camp. Youngsters straight from the streets are kept here for 10 days. Nine youths are undergoing a special programme for 16-24 year olds. Most institutions won’t have anything to do with street children who’ve become gangsters. The government doesn’t give a cent for those outcast by society. Early morning training sweats out the aggression. The Salesians, a Catholic order, are patiently trying to bring out the best in the young men. Staff try to interest the street kids in another kind of life. This knife has killed three people. This youth cut off another gang members head when he was just 13. It was his first murder.
John Pass, Social worker: The more evil they become they more they accept it. They become like heroes amongst themselves and that they will talk about evil stuff. It’s more like war stories and it makes them so proud and when they enter prison, they go in with this history behind them. Here comes a guy who’s done this, this and that. So much respect they get in this role in this world, the gang world and the prison world. And, it makes them happy. But it’s a distorted sense of happiness and camaraderie.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: After camp the former street kids and gangsters have to go through an 18-month programme. That means a regulated life with washing, prayer, school for some and trade training for others. It’s world with responsibility, order and rules. For the first time in their lives many get a useful education. The former gangsters can learn leatherwork or cabinet making. The metalworking course is also in high demand by newcomers. Priest Patrick Naughton looks after his charges. But he knows the limits.
Patrick Naughton, Salesian Order: Unless we have their goodwill, unless they’re here in freedom, we can’t do anything and that’s why some of them will say ‘sorry, we can’t do it’ and some of them will come back and say’ it was a very big mistake. I should have stuck it out and stayed.’ And, if they come and they’re interested we take them back. Our gates are always open to people who want to change their lives and improve.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: But at first the doors are closed. During the first four weeks they can’t leave the property. The swimming pool makes this easier to take. Seventy percent of the young men stay – the rest leave. But despite this, the Salesians still feel the programme’s a big success.
Ex-gangster: I lived with my mother but it wasn’t good. That’s when I decided to go onto the streets and break into cars and do criminal things. But now I changed my life. I don’t smoke drugs anymore, Mandrax. I don’t smoke anymore. I asked God to give me something good in my life. I want to be on top of the world because I want to be somebody who can take kids off the street so I can do something good and change my life.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: In the five years the Salesians have been offering this programme, many young men have found a normal life without drugs and crime. In the fishing port of Cape Town four ex-offenders were given a chance. They’ve got to know one another in the engine room. For days and weeks they’re at sea. At the end of the trip, they get their hard-earned money. It gives them back their self-worth.
Julian, 19 year-old, Ex-offender: I had to prove myself again. I was in prison again. But they bailed me out and I told myself I’m going to prove myself again and that I’m a better person and I’ve made it.
Nicolas, 20 year-old: Before I didn’t have any future because I had done so many things. But, now I’m beginning a new life.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Without the Salesians programme these young people would have had no hope for a better future. The only thing for certain was that much of it would be spent behind bars. During the Apartheid regime they had little chance of a successful life. After the democratic elections things were no better. They lacked education. An entire generation has been lost. But there is still some chance that other children will leave the streets and criminality behind them.
Thulisile Khumalo, Atamela Travel (In German: When you’re in Soweto and meet people that I’ve grown up with, you can see how open people are in Soweto, how much they like visitors. For every person here in Soweto, it’s important to see a tourist because they know that they’ll buy something. So, when you spend 10 Rand here you know it can feed a family.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: The South Western Township – Soweto for short - is 25 kilometres from Johannesburg, where most residents work – if they have jobs. Officially, the unemployment rate in South Africa is 42 per cent. In Soweto, it’s much higher. Here, poverty, unemployment and crime rule. Adults drown their boredom and hopelessness in alcohol. Youngsters, at least, still have their games. And resentment and activism have always had a strong grip on the people here.
Thulisile Khumalo, Atamela Travel: It began 1976 with a demonstration by school kids. The government had introduced a law in 1976 saying all the main subjects at school here in South Africa should be taught in Afrikaans. The students said they didn’t want this and protested. A soldier lost his nerve and started shooting the children. A 13 year old was killed.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Hector Pietersen was that child, one of the first children to be shot. His name has now become a potent symbol of black resistance to the Boer government. In the days following June 16 1976, more than 500 young South Africans died alongside Peitersen. Thousands more were injured. But that was only the beginning of the South Africa wide rebellion against white rule. The Hector Pietersen Museum in Soweto is a reminder of that resistance – a reminder to everyone that no people can permanently be oppressed. One person who lived in close contact with the unrest, is journalist Martin Mamlaba. During the rebellion few white reporters were allowed into Soweto. Political activists used to meet here, in the Regina Mundi church.
Martin Mamlaba, Former journalist: There was a sort of state of emergency at that time. But people are not allowed to be in the streets at night. The army would beat them up, the police would beat them up. They didn’t want gatherings of more than five people. And, the church here was a refuge for most people and that’s where meetings were being held. So, politicians, now some of them are in parliament, addressed people in this very church behind me. So, at that time the police would come and surround this place and wait for people to come out. When they saw people not coming out they’d throw tear gas right into the church and then march in and jambok everybody including the priests. That was like how it was at that time.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Now on a pension, Martin was not only a journalist, but also close to the African National Congress. Children today dance around the altar after their first communion but before this is where defenders of the Apartheid regime used to shoot at opponents. Separate entrances for whites and blacks still remain but only in the Apartheid museum in Johannesburg. The hated pass which classified people by race and skin colour has also disappeared – like the gallows. It’s been over 15 years since images like these went around the world. The decades long oppression of the whites had pushed youths in the townships to the limit. They wanted their rights and they wanted them now. And, not to be second-class citizens. Youths in the ghettos played cat and mouse with the police. They were militant, angry and impatient. Many lost their lives. Most young blacks couldn’t ever hope to have a regular education. Nelson Mandela was the hope of the country. After he was freed from Robben Island prison and was voted President four years later, there was freedom in South Africa. Mandela wanted reconciliation between blacks and whites. Before the first democratic elections in 1994, many whites left the country. Those that stayed had to rethink. The black population would no longer let themselves be pushed around.
Nelson Mandela, Former President of South Africa: Take your weapons, take your knives and throw them into the sea.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Nelson Mandela prevented a civil war but couldn’t stop whites from needing to take up fortified positions – fearfully hiding behind high walls and barriers, razor wire, electric fences and defended by fierce dogs. To protect themselves from gangsters, some people have installed self-shooting mechanisms. After many incidents of blacks climbing over his garden walls Jock Burden installed this device. Tripwires trigger the device – like in this constructed scene.
Jock Burden, Engineer: As everyone is saying, law and order has broken down. The courts are overloaded, the police have no power anymore and I also think there are so many illegal immigrants in the country roaming around all over the place and no one seems to be bothering too much about it. So, these people have no jobs and I think if I was in the same position I would have to steal, I think. But unfortunately, people are being killed because of this. The need for them is to find work.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: This police video shows how young gangsters operate. This was filmed by a hidden amateur video camera. Since 1994, more than 12 million South Africans have been victims of crime, such as violent car hijackings. Sometimes, the car owners have been brutally killed. This girl was lucky. Only her car and purse were stolen. We’re in Alexandra – one of the worst black areas in Johannesburg. Carabo and Freddy show us how they earned their money. Almost everyday, using armed violence, they stole a car. One man is trying with unusual methods to fight against this brutal criminality and get youths out of gangsterism. He uses violence.
Carabo, Former gangster: The bishop came and he beat me. He talked to me. If I stayed a gangster then I had no future. I would land in prison and die young.
Freddy, Former gangster: The other gangsters were my family. My parents didn’t care about me. I didn’t go to school anymore.
Ananias Maredi, Apostolic Bishop: Well, these two young guys – I hit him to make him see right because he was doing this car hijacking. And, this one was housebreaking and this one I just talked to him and then again I hit him. At the moment I am succeeding because they are doing something for the community.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: The Maredi Centre is run from this small house. Bishop Maredi and around 20 criminal pupils live here. Every day they cook for around 2000 children. The community gives donations but they are far from rich. Nutritious meals are cooked – maize and beans or the main staple of the blacks – Pap – a maize mixture with sauce. According to the bishop, there are about 30,000 children in the black township of Alexandra who don’t get enough to eat. Many of them have to look after themselves. Ananias Maredi was ordained as a bishop by the Apostolic church in South Africa. He could no longer bear to see children searching through rubbish dumps looking for something to eat. Half a million people live in the cramped quarters of Alexandra. Every day Bishop Maredi, his gangsters and volunteers distribute the food. For many children it’s the only meal of the day. Every Sunday there’s a procession. The priest walks with the former criminals through the streets to show them to the community. He doesn’t believe in the usual Sunday preaching. That’s only for old people. He’s interested in caring for the young. Here, one of them has died. The gangsters are a thorn in the side of Bishop Maredi and his converted youths.
Ananias Maredi, Apostolic Bishop: It’s forcing me to take the law into my hands and I have to see what I can do to protect myself and how I can protect the community. Because now what I’m going to do, if they continue is to beat them to death, because our police do nothing.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Twenty ex-gangsters have found a home through the Bishop. But a lot of them want fast money. And, they also have to contend with the police. They’ve got a tip. This was a chop shop –a place where stolen cars are taken apart. Usually the police lose the criminals in the narrow lanes. The remains of two cars are on the scrap heap. The gangsters ran out of time. But everything else has been sold. But, right under our noses, when we were filming, there was another robbery.
Masilo Sekoba, Police: Two of them come around to the driver. They point a firearm at him and one of them sticks a screwdriver in his stomach. They said ‘kill him. Kill him.’
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Even the murals show the violence in South Africa. Security firms are making good business from the fear of criminality. Since the regime change they’ve been making money out of satellite surveillance for cars. A helicopter from the Netstar company is in the air daily following signals from stolen cars. Usually, they’re located within 45 minutes. A small box, the size of a cigarette packet is built into the car that allows it to be tracked by satellite. The signal from the stolen car is received and then followed. Over 90 percent of cars are found again – like this van. The thieves were tracked down. After a night in jail, most of them are let out on bail. Many of them never turn up for their court date. Police tell of repeated arrests of the same offenders. The justice system in the new South Africa is not working efficiently. In Alexandra alone these weapons have been collected from offenders. None of them is registered. Despite the high rate of criminality, murders and brutality, all is not lost. There are always a few who are practically helping youngsters to overcome the disadvantages they face in life.
Condry Ziqubu, Singer: The only thing that really is to be done is for the government to really try to do some policing. Policing around. But the major thing is to give people some employment. If people are employed there will be less crime.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Everyday in the afternoons, youngsters come to Condry’s to make music with him or learn an instrument. There’s no force – that wouldn’t help anyone. They have something to do and it keeps them on the rails.
Condry Ziqubu, Singer: I think it’s about time to plough back because it’s been the people, the community that’s been supporting me all these years in the music business. So, I think it’s imperative that I plough back and teach the kids the business of music – how to play piano, how to sing, so they can become the stars of tomorrow.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: In the Alexandra Centre youngsters can also go to an art course. Volunteers help out so the children can learn something. Schooling is free in South Africa, but parents have to buy the school uniform. Many parents can’t manage that. Children often have to work or simply stop going to school and leave the straight and narrow. Do you like coming here?
Child: Yes.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Why?
Child: We don’t have many things to do. Just to come here we know we have to do something. I have bad friends that go and steal and go break into your house.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Before, there used to be no money for playgrounds in the black townships. The white government didn’t care how people lived here. The result is a high rate of youth criminality. That’s why it’s now so important to have facilities so children can at least learn something. The apartheid regime is responsible for the misery. People were treated like cattle and forced to live in the black townships. The young people which fought against the government are now unemployed. They were not needed after the regime change because they didn’t have any education. The government has built 1.5 million small homes with electricity and running water. But for over 30 million needy blacks in South Africa, this is just a drop in the ocean. An estimated half of them live below the poverty line and many of them can’t manage to get a new house. Drugs help to forget daily life. Marihuana, crack, Mandrax pills – all help to keep hopelessness at bay. To get money for drugs they get guns and find it good to be a gang member. In one of the townships, Louis Swigelaar tries to create peace between the gangs.
Louis Swigelaar, Go-between gangsters: One of the schoolboys was killed and then that same evening the schoolboys came and petrol bombed this house. From that day onwards, on a daily basis they, the kids, fight. But they use a nine year-old to take drugs from one point to another because the police will never search a nine year-old or a 13 year-old. Then we look at the 13-16 year-olds doing the attacks. Even if they go to court they are minors and they’ll be released into the custody of their parents. That’s what the gangs know.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: There are 32 gangs with around 18’000 members is a constant state of war. The judge at the court in Mitchells Plain knows most of them. One of the biggest problems in South Africa is the disintergration of the justice system. People have lost trust in the system. That’s why many of them take the law into their own hands. Lack of punishment has meant there’s no halt to the violence. Many gang children are in detention centres. Some of them never reach adulthood. They die young. The first step after being arrested is for the offenders appear in court. But sometimes it takes months to get a court date. And so, the liberal justice system lets most offenders out on bail. So, they can easily disappear before the court date, until they are caught later on for another crime. It’s playing roulette with the system.
Walter Golding, Judge: Gang violence is a real factor in our court at Mitchells Plain. With that comes abuse of drugs which is primarily marijuana, glue, and smoking, Mandrax. But they start off with a younger age with glue sniffing. But that no longer gives the desired effect it seems they switch to harder drugs.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: An entire generation is living on the streets in Cape Town. A year ago, this small child was born on the streets. The father has never known a home. A couple of planks, a roof of a shop – that’s home for this young family. The police often tear the shelters down but the next day, they’re built again.
20-year-old previous offender: To get a job here in town is hard because when the boss knows you come out of jail, you’re a jail gangster, he thinks you might steal his stuff and they tell you to your face. What can you do? You have to walk away. What can you do? That’s why they say there will always be crime. Some of them run away from home because of nothing. They just want to be able to do what they want on the streets. They don’t want to listen to their mother or father.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Early morning in Cape Town. Thousands of children like these huddle together at night to sleep. They want to be on the streets because their parents are alcoholics or in prison – or because it’s simply better on the streets than at home. These two have also found a place to spend the night – right on a main road. We want to know why they live on the streets. She says their mother drinks too much. The boy says an older lad used to try to get Gail. Then they chased me away. I miss good people, she says at the end. In Cape Town – like in all the big cities in South Africa – emergency night shelters for children have been opened. Here, in the Heim Homestead, they say they won’t take Gail anymore. Three times she was given a chance times to stay and to learn something. But she sneaked out. Like most children here, she’d never been to school and knew only life on the streets with drugs and alcohol. Her future looks much the same. Totally stoned and full of drugs she finds with other like her, a kind of family. You must put the paint thinner on a towel and inhale. Then everything’s OK, says this girl. She says it makes her head weightless. If I have to go to the court again, then I immediately sell my paint thinner and stuff to sniff and then I go to a liquor store and buy my wine – then I can sleep well, she says. How old are you?
Girl: Eighteen. Why do you ask?
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: She wants to tell her story. Because I was sniffing substances, the court took my two children away. The path from the streets to prison is narrow. Whenever possible they steal. The money is just for stuff to inhale. That’s how they forget their hunger and misery. This boy stole things from a shop. The judge has generally known the youths since they were knee high. If they are majors and offend they’re not handed over to their parents. Most of them end up in prison. If the children are lucky they come to a youth detention centre like here in Bonnytoun near Cape Town. There are thousand children in prison in South Africa. Most of them have had appalling experiences on the inside. In Bonnytoun youths are together. During the apartheid-regime they were thrown together in cells with adults – rape was commonplace. What shocked us are the accounts they gave of armed violence. At every table there’s an average of two murderers and a sex offender. And, they’re still just children. In South Africa today, children are still put behind bars with adults. Gangs are tightly organised. They share the newcomers amongst themselves. They must, even if they don’t want to, do what they desire. This teenager explains what it’s like.
15 year-old offender: He wants to sleep with them. If you don’t want to sleep with them they beat you. If they say something to you and you say no, later they want to sleep with you for that thing you didn’t do. And you must …you be in big trouble and they will beat you.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: 160 youths are here in Bonnytoun. Fourteen to 17 year olds are locked up, but at least they’re not with adults. None of them want to be recognised. One of our four interviewees began his criminal career with two murders when he was 13 years old. At 15 he was a gang leader. Then there were two rapes. Another began his gangster career with an armed robbery – when he was just 13. Another committed rape when he was 15 and was put behind bars. The fourth was in for theft. Today he’s 15 years old. All carry their gang numbers tattooed on their body. They’re all waiting for their court hearing. Thanks to Nicro – a help organisation for offenders, many youths are transferred to this safe house from prison.
Deon Ruiters, Nicro – Institute for Crime Prevention: Most of the cases, about 75 percent of the cases we see in our criminal court, are commercial cases like theft, shoplifting, housebreaking these cases. It’s very seldom you see a child under 15 committing serious crimes like murder and rape. And I’m not saying it doesn’t happen. It does happen. But it’s about 10-13 percent of the cases that come into our criminal justice system.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: The list of offences of these youths is long: possession of weapons, rape, murder, armed robbery, theft and car hijacking. They’re behind bars and have little to do except watch television. Some of them try to escape. There’s only a slim chance that any child here will break out of the vicious of violence, forced sex and crime. About an hour and a half from Cape Town there’s a special camp. Youngsters straight from the streets are kept here for 10 days. Nine youths are undergoing a special programme for 16-24 year olds. Most institutions won’t have anything to do with street children who’ve become gangsters. The government doesn’t give a cent for those outcast by society. Early morning training sweats out the aggression. The Salesians, a Catholic order, are patiently trying to bring out the best in the young men. Staff try to interest the street kids in another kind of life. This knife has killed three people. This youth cut off another gang members head when he was just 13. It was his first murder.
John Pass, Social worker: The more evil they become they more they accept it. They become like heroes amongst themselves and that they will talk about evil stuff. It’s more like war stories and it makes them so proud and when they enter prison, they go in with this history behind them. Here comes a guy who’s done this, this and that. So much respect they get in this role in this world, the gang world and the prison world. And, it makes them happy. But it’s a distorted sense of happiness and camaraderie.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: After camp the former street kids and gangsters have to go through an 18-month programme. That means a regulated life with washing, prayer, school for some and trade training for others. It’s world with responsibility, order and rules. For the first time in their lives many get a useful education. The former gangsters can learn leatherwork or cabinet making. The metalworking course is also in high demand by newcomers. Priest Patrick Naughton looks after his charges. But he knows the limits.
Patrick Naughton, Salesian Order: Unless we have their goodwill, unless they’re here in freedom, we can’t do anything and that’s why some of them will say ‘sorry, we can’t do it’ and some of them will come back and say’ it was a very big mistake. I should have stuck it out and stayed.’ And, if they come and they’re interested we take them back. Our gates are always open to people who want to change their lives and improve.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: But at first the doors are closed. During the first four weeks they can’t leave the property. The swimming pool makes this easier to take. Seventy percent of the young men stay – the rest leave. But despite this, the Salesians still feel the programme’s a big success.
Ex-gangster: I lived with my mother but it wasn’t good. That’s when I decided to go onto the streets and break into cars and do criminal things. But now I changed my life. I don’t smoke drugs anymore, Mandrax. I don’t smoke anymore. I asked God to give me something good in my life. I want to be on top of the world because I want to be somebody who can take kids off the street so I can do something good and change my life.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: In the five years the Salesians have been offering this programme, many young men have found a normal life without drugs and crime. In the fishing port of Cape Town four ex-offenders were given a chance. They’ve got to know one another in the engine room. For days and weeks they’re at sea. At the end of the trip, they get their hard-earned money. It gives them back their self-worth.
Julian, 19 year-old, Ex-offender: I had to prove myself again. I was in prison again. But they bailed me out and I told myself I’m going to prove myself again and that I’m a better person and I’ve made it.
Nicolas, 20 year-old: Before I didn’t have any future because I had done so many things. But, now I’m beginning a new life.
Marion Mayer-Hohdahl: Without the Salesians programme these young people would have had no hope for a better future. The only thing for certain was that much of it would be spent behind bars. During the Apartheid regime they had little chance of a successful life. After the democratic elections things were no better. They lacked education. An entire generation has been lost. But there is still some chance that other children will leave the streets and criminality behind them.